Aspirated H
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In French spelling, aspirated "h" ( French: ''"h" aspiré'') is an initial
silent letter In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation. In linguistics, a silent letter is often symbolised with a null sign . Null is an unpronounc ...
that represents a
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...
at a word boundary, between the word's first
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
and the preceding word's last vowel. At the same time, the aspirated ''h'' stops the normal processes of
contraction Contraction may refer to: Linguistics * Contraction (grammar), a shortened word * Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons * Elision, omission of sounds ** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word * Synalepha, merged ...
and
liaison Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together. Liaison or liaisons may refer to: General usage * Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship * Collaboration * Co-operation Arts and entertainment * Li ...
from occurring. The name of the now-silent ''h'' refers not to aspiration but to its former pronunciation as the
voiceless glottal fricative The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition, and sometimes called the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant ''phonologically'', but ...
in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
and in
Middle French Middle French (french: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from t ...
.


Examples

:a) nos héros ''our heroes'' :b) *nos héros ''our heroes'' This example illustrates how the aspirated ''h''-word ''héros'' prevents the liaison, in which the otherwise-silent word-final consonant would be pronounced before the first vowel of the following word. Because the ''h'' is aspirated, the second entry is incorrect, as the hiatus prevents the final from being phonetically realised. :a) le hibou 'the owl' :b) *l'hibou 'the owl' This example illustrates how the aspirated-''h'' word ''hibou'' has no elision, in which the vowel of the ''le'' would be dropped. The second entry is incorrect because elision is not allowed in the word ''hibou'' because of the hiatus imposed by its aspirated ''h''.


Historical and sociolinguistic aspects

One part of the major phonological changes between Latin and Early Old French was the loss of the consonant , which would later return with the introduction of Germanic words into the language. The aspirate ''h'' ceased to be pronounced once more in either the 16th or the 17th century, but some grammarians kept insisting for it be pronounced into the early part of the twentieth century. Since the phonological behavior of aspirate ''h'' words cannot be predicted through spelling, usage requires a considerable amount of memorisation. It is often used to demonstrate one's education and social status. As early as the 17th century, noted grammarian
Claude Favre de Vaugelas Claude Favre de Vaugelas (6 January 1585 – 26 February 1650) was a Savoyard grammarian and man of letters. Although a lifelong courtier, Claude Favre was widely known by the name of one of the landed estates he owned as ''seigneur'' of Vau ...
described the incorrect pronunciation of aspirated ''h'' words as typical of French spoken on the southern side of the
Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
. Further discussion of the phenomenon is found in almost every collection of remarks on language to the present day, with mistakes generally being ascribed to class differences or inattention. In modern usage, the blocking of liaison and
elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
with aspirated ''h'' words appears to be gaining ground in formal French but is losing ground in less guarded speech.


List of French words which begin with an aspirated ''h''

The following list contains only the dictionary head entries and not all the forms that can be derived from them. For example, it does not contain past participles or transitive verbs when used as adjectives or nouns. It does not include composite words unless the omission might cause confusion among homonyms distinguished only by diacritic signs. * In all French words that begin with ''h'', the following letter is a vowel. * Most aspirated-''h'' words are derived from
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
. * The ''h'' is generally not aspirated in words of Latin and Greek origin. * Before other vowels, the ''h'' is often aspirated, except for those coming from the oldest
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
roots. * The ''h'' is aspirated in
onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
. * There are numerous exceptions, and etymology often cannot explain them satisfactorily. In French dictionaries, words with an initial aspirated ''h'' are traditionally prefixed with an
asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
but with no effect on their alphabetical arrangement. The following list is compiled from the ''Dictionnaire du Trésor de la langue française'' and the ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française''. It lacks many proper names and recent borrowings. In general, if a borrowed word is pronounced with an in its language of origin, the ''h'' will be conserved in French orthography and be aspirated.


Words beginning with ''ha''


Words beginning with ''he''


Hélas

''Hélas'' is not aspirated in classical poetry. * ''Hélas ! Que cet hélas a de peine à sortir'' (
Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...
). That is indicated here by the use of ''cet'' rather than ''ce''.


Words beginning with ''hi''

The aspiration of ''h'' is often optional in words beginning with ''hi'', and the liaison (with a mute ''h'') is generally accepted, except in recent anglicisms of current usage, interjections or homophones with another word. Beside the very productive and learned Greek root ''hiéro-'', most words are quite recent and of Germanic origin (
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, Modern English), or the ''h'' is lightly pronounced.


Words beginning with ''ho''

Most have an aspirated ''h''. The exceptions are mostly Latin roots that are most widely used in which the ''h'' has lost its voicing through assimilation to common language (in ''hôte'', ''hospice'' or ''hôpital'' all derived from ''hospes''/''hospitis''. Also if the ''h'' has been assimilated to the following ⟨s⟩ ''heure''/''horo-'', taken from ''hora'' in which the ''h'' has been assimilated to the preceding adjectives, make the ''h'' mute.


Words beginning with ''hu''

Almost all words beginning with ''hu'' have an aspirated ''h''. The exceptions are some terms for which the ''h'' is not etymological but was introduced for orthographic reasons with the purpose of distinguishing different roots that begin with a ''u'' or a ''v'' but were homographs in Latin writing (therefore, ''huile'', ''huis'', or ''huître'' are not aspirated).


See also

*
Hiatus (linguistics) In phonology, hiatus, diaeresis (), or dieresis describes the occurrence of two separate vowel sounds in adjacent syllables with no intervening consonant. When two vowel sounds instead occur together as part of a single syllable, the result is ...
*
Sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...


References

{{Reflist French phonology Phonology